I’m fortunate that as a dog owner, I’ve got a pair of crazy Cocker Spaniels on tap to photograph whenever I need them. But it also means that I put in a lot of time to capture images of them to remember them by. After all, we never know when we might lose them forever.
It’s celebrating the dogs we love, specific looks they might give when the photograph was taken or the thoughts you know are going on in their minds draw you to specific images.
With almost ten years of being a full-time dog photographer and more years still of photographing my dogs, I do appreciate how important the artwork I create for my clients is to them.
For those very same reasons, I treasure the images of my dogs that aren’t with us anymore.
Over the last two years, we’ve lost both our original litter sister Springer Spaniels – Millie and Daisy. We had to say goodbye to Millie earlier this year, but Daisy was the first of the pair to suddenly go almost three years ago now.
Daisy was the cheeky one of the pair and the hardest to train. But with lots of effort, she got there, and we had an amazing 10 and a bit years with her.
Although she didn’t really enjoy swimming out of her depth, she loved getting her feet wet and would jump into a puddle or paddle in a stream at the easiest of opportunities.
This is by far my favourite picture of Daisy. Taken in Delamere forest one Autumn, she is sitting only a few feet from one of the Meres, but we certainly weren’t going to allow her to go in and get into the filthy green waters that day. I’d asked her to sit in such a way that the light was perfect and the autumn colours were looking stunning.
But it’s the look she took to the right, towards the lake, and what I think is going on her head that means so much to me. I know she wants to break her sit, but good on her, she stayed in place.
This framed canvas sits in our hall and is positioned so that I see it everytime I leave our kitchen. It brings a smile to my face everytime I see it and just captures Daisy’s spirit perfectly.
Wouldn’t you love to have a similar piece of artwork hanging in your home that brings the same reaction everytime you walk past? Do get in touch to book a session with your dogs and create the same memories.
If you would like to read a little more about my love for Millie and Daisy and what their loss meant to me, please take a look at my other blog post here.